Qatar to supply LNG to China for 27 years

Doha, The Gulf Observer: QatarEnergy has announced a 27-year natural gas supply deal with China, calling it the “longest” ever business agreement of its kind as the energy-rich Middle East country strengthened ties with Asia while Europe scrambled for alternative sources.

The state energy company will send four million tonnes of liquefied natural gas annually from its new North Field East project to China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), it said on Monday.

The deal “marks the longest gas supply agreement in the history of the LNG industry”, said Saad Sherida al Kaabi, Qatar’s energy minister and QatarEnergy’s chief executive.

Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea are the main market for Qatar’s gas, which is increasingly being sought by European countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Negotiations with European countries have struggled as Germany and others baulked at signing the type of long-term deals made with Asian nations.

North Field is at the centre of Qatar’s expansion of its liquefied natural gas production by more than 60 percent to 126 million tonnes a year by 2027.”QatarEnergy has a lot of LNG to market… but they’re very confident about demand,” Ben Cahill, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank